Trade unions / The Spark: Transport strikes, the bin men, British steel and more

The first issue of our industrial news sheet examines recent cases of trade union leaderships failing their members and the wider working class.

British politics / The second coming of Jeremy Corbyn

Can the clown car be kept on the road for long enough to fulfil its function?

Divide and rule / Reform: scapegoating migrants to save capitalism

Nigel Farage is simply one more player in a game of ‘divide and rule’ that the British ruling class has been directing for 200 years.

Europe / The west prepares the European theatre for World War 3

Enhanced military budgets are putting west European economies on a war footing, and infrastructure required for transporting armaments is set to be upgraded.

Capitalist crisis / Whatever happened to Lowestoft?

No town anywhere should be left to rot by an uncaring and arrogant ruling class. When our whole future is at stake, it’s time to take action.

Trade unions / Labour is the enemy of the working class!

Trade unions must break all links and dismantle their Labour-aligned bureaucracies.

British politics / Corbyn Project 2? What could possibly go wrong?

As the imperialists ramp up their drive into WW3, the Corbynistas are back demanding we all fiddle while Rome burns.

Disputes / Birmingham bin workers smelling rats

Neither the council nor the unions seem in any hurry to bring this dispute to a conclusion. Workers are left wondering why.

Social wage / People’s Assembly puts on show of fake outrage over ‘Tory Starmer’

Ever hopeful of rescuing their reputations and keeping a lid on working-class discontent, the fake left are at it again.

Health / A nurse’s view of the continuing sabotage of the NHS

Our health service is well advanced on the road to total privatisation.

Social wage / The poverty crisis and our demands

Workers did not cause the economic crisis, but they are expected to pay the price through austerity and war.

Disputes / Birmingham’s gone bust! But why are workers told to pay?

No one has explained why some of the most hardworking and essential employees should bear the brunt of a crisis they had no hand in making.

Disputes / Birmingham bin workers expected to pay for council’s bankruptcy

Some binmen are being told to take an £8k pay cut after national austerity and local mismanagement combined to bankrupt the city.

Ecuador / Ecuador’s election – a critical analysis of class interests

As the ‘pink wave’ continues to wash over Latin America, the influence of private enterprise and US imperialism on bourgeois elections should not be forgotten.

USA / LA fires fuelled by imperialism, corruption, exploitation and injustice

Meanwhile, corporate media try to divert attention by divisive culture wars framing.

British politics / The life and crimes of John ‘Two Jags’ Prescott

One more example of a working-class man who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.

France / France left without a government as Barnier falls

This latest collapse is another twist in Paris’s downward spiral into terminal political crisis.

Capitalist crisis / Why aren’t they taxing the rich?

While ‘patriotic millionaires’ consider a wealth tax a no-brainer, Labour party ‘socialists’ are horrified at the very thought.

Sri Lanka / A political earthquake in Sri Lanka

Can the new president overcome the country’s communal legacy, unite its people and set them on their way towards building a self-sufficient and prosperous future?

Education / Education union colluding with Labour against the workers

The NEU has thrown in the towel of struggle, betraying not only its own rank-and-file membership but also the wider interests of the working class.

Capitalist crisis / Labour means austerity, racism, repression and war

So where are the trade unions?

Kenya / Kenyan youth rebellion against imperialist superexploitation

The youth of all tribes were at one in standing up against IMF-imposed austerity, all of them ready to lay down their lives in the struggle for justice.

British politics / Benefit cap shock? Labour perfidy is nothing new

Those surprised by the Starmer’s contempt for the poor would do well to study the party’s 100-year history of anti-worker crimes in office.

British politics / No votes for genocide-enablers or Nato warmongers!

We are calling on workers to help the campaigns of, and give their votes to, all candidates standing on an anti-genocide, anti-Nato and anti-Labour platform.

Health / Decaying dental services cause misery for millions of workers

The steady destruction of NHS dentistry has left millions of working people resorting to to DIY dental kits as Victorian era diseases return to Britain.

Argentina / Victory of Javier Milei reveals the failure of Argentina’s popular forces

How could a candidate with such an overtly anti-worker programme be elected by workers in dire economic straits?

Ireland / The Dublin riots

Why are so many on the left so quick to dismiss every outpouring of working-class rage as ‘mindless’ and ‘lumpen’?

Economy / HS2: they should have gone to ChinaSavers!

What does it say about our decaying system that our rulers can spend decades debating and spending to deliver precisely nothing at the end of it?

Leaflets / Open letter to CPB: Give up the Labour party and take the revolutionary path

Sincere communists must make a serious appraisal of their work at this time of deepening crisis and renewed struggle.

Capitalist crisis / Is life under capitalism getting you down? Luckily, there’s a cure!

Are you sad and depressed? Lonely? Anxious? Isolated? Worried about the future? You may be suffering from capitalism.

Health / Capitalist contradictions abound: Victorian illnesses on the rise

How can we explain the seemingly absurd combination of British workers’ failing health from malnutrition alongside rising obesity?

British politics / The Labour left still lost in its labyrinth

Starmer’s refusal to allow Corbyn to rejoin Labour has highlighted the true loyalties of the party’s supposed ‘left-wingers’.

France / French communists: A revolutionary crisis is developing in France

If properly directed, workers’ action has the power to sweep away not only the rule of Emmanuel Macron but of the entire French bourgeoisie.

Education / Why I left my first teaching job: ‘No support, no training, no care for the kids’

This view from a school gives an insight into why so many of our teachers are feeling so demoralised.

Education / Support our teachers; save our schools!

It is not only their present ability to exist that Britain’s teachers are fighting for, but our children’s future.

Social wage / Many councils have crippling gambling debts. Workers will be paying the bill

Local councils across Britain are going bankrupt, leading to ever deeper cuts in services that have already been stripped to the bone.

Health / The ruin of the NHS for the benefit of private interests

In their desperation for sources of profit, our exploiters as individuals even end up damaging their own collective interests.

Capitalist crisis / Crisis is inescapable while capitalism remains

The working class’s historic role is to put an end to profit-driven capitalism and to build a new, socialist society in its place.

Social wage / Don’t tell Newham we are all in it together

The financial and physical inability to isolate or to work safely has led to far worse covid outcomes for the poorest in our society.

Social wage / Destitution in Britain compounded by 2020 crash and covid shutdowns

How can it be that there is so much want in the midst of so much plenty?

Society / Time to end poverty: expropriate the expropriators!

Bourgeois commentators are increasingly identifying the problems besetting humanity, but they are congenitally incapable of recognising the solution staring them in the face.

Social wage / Insult to injury: government plans to cut Universal Credit boost

Covid has exposed the injustice of below-poverty-line benefits. How will our rulers balance their need for cheap and desperate workers with maintaining social peace?

Social wage / Southern Cross: vulture capitalists still getting fat on the care home racket

The problems in our care homes are rooted in privatisation and began well before the pandemic arrived to bring them to national attention.

Social wage / UBI: a recipe for universal misery

Our demand must be for meaningful work in a society free from poverty, unemployment and insecurity.

Society / Thinktank warns of massive rise in destitution in the wake of Covid-19

The wonders of capitalism: five million Britons predicted to become destitute this year.

Capitalist crisis / Rising inequality following the 2020 crisis of overproduction

Mushrooming inequality has the capitalist class spooked, for they fear the consequences.

Civil liberties / Under cover of Covid-19: trial by jury is under attack

The abolition of workers’ right to a jury trial could be the final nail in the coffin of the justice system in Britain.

Social wage / UBI: the ‘right’ to be idle or the right to work?

What does the call for a universal basic income really mean?

Social wage / Hunger rising sharply as covid-19 lockdown combines with economic crash

Why are we witnessing the obscene sight of workers going hungry in the midst of plenty?

Social wage / Austerity Britain: where the homeless seek shelter in bins

Report reveals shocking rise of bin sleepers as one waste worker recounts finding children as young as nine or ten.

Ireland / The Irish electorate cry out against austerity and bring reunification closer

The future is bright; the future is green.

Ireland / Irish election: Sinn Féin tops the popular vote

As the establishment duopoly is burst asunder, Ireland’s rulers are desperately trying to turn back the rising tide.

Social wage / Errol Graham and the unreported austerity pandemic

Social murder in our midst is being hushed up by all arms of the state, hand in glove with media that are entirely uninterested in ‘speaking truth to power’.

Social wage / Children in care being let down as vultures profit from their misery

The children’s care system is yet another example of how privateers are feeding off the wretchedness of society’s most vulnerable.

France / French class war continuing as neither side looks ready to back down

Macron continues to push EU-backed pensions attack while unions have called for a general strike and total oil refinery blockade.

Society / Debt survey shows inequality widening as rich get richer and poor get poorer

As the gap between the super-rich and everyone else gets ever wider, it is clear that this system is overdue for a foreclosure of its own.

France / French strikes expand and deepen as more workers join the fray

A class war is underway in France and the workers show no sign of backing down. Victoire aux grévistes!

British politics / The Brexit election and the death of Project Corbyn

What lessons can workers take from the last four years?

France / Support the French strikers!

France’s militant unions are joining forces with yellow vest activists in a serious challenge to Macron’s EU-backed assault on living standards.

Film and TV / Film review: Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You

A faithful depiction of the horrors of today’s contract workers, marred by its total pessimism.

Society / The double victimisation of capitalism’s female victims

Locked up for being poor, their children uprooted and set adrift ... while privatised prison services rake in the cash.

Education / Sabotage of state schools

Growing privatisation and austerity is eroding the hard-won right to an education for our children.

Social wage / DWP dirty tricks are pushing the most vulnerable over the edge

Private companies are being handsomely paid to prevent the sick from accessing benefits they have every right to.

Economy / QuickQuid – cut and run

Having extorted millions from struggling austerity-hit families, the US-backed payday lender is pocketing its loot and getting out.

Health / Shameful levels of malnutrition in Britain

Privatisation and cost-cutting in social care have led to shocking levels of neglect amongst the most vulnerable in our society.

Education / Teachers given pay rise, but schools forced to pay

Government will fund a 0.75 percent increase, with schools told to find most of the required cash from their own budgets.

Social wage / ‘We often see grown men in tears – they can’t believe they’re here’

Manchester reporter discovers dismay, rage and defiance in Oldham, a town bruised by universal credit and austerity.

Education / Thousands of children are taught in classes that are too big

Reverse privatisation and create an education system that serves the real needs of both society and individuals.

Climate change / Letter: How can we deal with climate change?

Should workers ‘take a haircut’ to save the environment?

Disputes / Left-Labour-controlled Newham is not such a New Jerusalem

Despite working for a Labour council and a Corbynite mayor, council workers in Newham face pay cuts and bullying.

Climate change / Yellow vests v Extinction Rebellion

Climate protestors’ leader accidentally gives away the ruling class’s agenda.

France / Call from France’s first yellow vest assembly

Even as it sinks out of sight in the British media, France’s popular rebellion is continuing and gaining momentum.

British politics / ‘Neither Brexit nor austerity’ – the People’s Assembly and the yellow vest movement in Britain

Pitting austerity against Brexit is misleading workers into supporting the interests of British imperialism and dividing rather than uniting workers in struggle.

France / France’s yellow vests fight on, despite concessions

Social unrest in France is being driven by workers’ anger at continuous attacks on jobs, wages and living standards.

Social wage / WH Smith gobbles up another 74 post offices

Another step towards the complete dismemberment and privatisation of the mail service.

Social wage / A third of British children live in poverty

A decade of austerity is taking a heavy toll on Britain’s families.

Pay and conditions / Marriott hotel staff walk-outs across the USA

Hard-pressed hospitality workers are fighting back over low pay and increasingly brutal conditions.

Housing / The housing crisis is lining private landlords’ pockets

Housing benefit is acting as the ‘landlords’ bonus’, while provision of emergency temporary accommodation by private landlords is the ‘icing on the cake’.

Disputes / Birmingham: Two-faced council breaks promises to binmen and residents

Birmingham’s militant binmen deserve our full support as their dispute looks set to break out again this Christmas.

Pay and conditions / Glasgow: Teachers take to the streets

Pay and conditions in the profession continue to decline, leading to a retention and recruitment crisis in our schools.

Social wage / Universal credit: forcing the needy into ever more desperate poverty

The government can look after the interests of the capitalists or the interests of the workers; it cannot do both.

Disputes / FE lecturers ballot over derisory pay offer

It is not the job of workers to square the accounts of their employers.

Education / School exclusions create prisoners, not reformed pupils

With ever more social problems manifesting in the classroom, and support staff and services being axed, draconian methods of ‘behaviour management’ are on the rise.

Disputes / Support Birmingham’s homecare workers

Before Labour councillors privatise the service completely.

Health / NHS cost-cutting managers’ plan will axe a raft of routine operations

Calling these procedures ‘unnecessary’ won’t stop people needing them, however; it will merely ration them according to the ability to pay.

Health / Save our NHS

Only by clearly understanding our rulers’ determination to dismantle the NHS and by coordinating our efforts to save it can we hope to succeed.

Health / NHS: government forced to recognise reality

The NHS needs more money for services and staff, not simply to create further profits for the bloodsucking privateers.

Social wage / Poverty on the rise as Birmingham’s Labour council freezes burial fees

Rates of child poverty are soaring in Britain’s major cities; Labour councils are as impotent and callous as all the rest.

France / France fights back against Thatcherite ‘reforms’

French workers have only to see what has been done to the British working class in recent decades to understand the ramifications of their present fight.

Health / NHS crisis bites deeper

Workers taste the bitter fruit of capitalist market ‘reforms’.

Disputes / Editorial: Message to Birmingham’s bin workers

Disputes / Birmingham’s binmen conclude their strike … for now

A ‘new’ deal has been offered that appears to make some concessions, but which demands more work for the same money.

Disputes / Binmen on strike in Birmingham

More council cuts = more rats! Birmingham’s refuse workers are mounting strong resistance to the latest austerity plans of the city’s Labour-led council.

Housing / Editorial: The housing crisis

The horrific fire at Grenfell Tower in London, which has killed so many working-class people, demonstrates the terrible reality of housing in Britain today.

British politics / Not so strong and stable after all: May loses Brexit gamble

The poisoned chalice of the British premiership.

British politics / Editorial: Our demands

Health / Cloak and dagger: the operation to kill the NHS

The campaign to destroy the NHS is reaching its final stages: how did we get here and what can we do?

British politics / Editorial: Brexit moves ahead

Article 50 is triggered.

Disputes / No to the new doctors’ contract; save our NHS!

Hunt declares victory for the government; BMA’s Malawana declares ... nothing.

Disputes / Greece: the struggle continues

General strikes resume in the fight against austerity.

Social wage / Budget 2016: attacking the poor will not fix the economy

Chancellor Osborne is finding that there is no escape from the world capitalist economic crisis.

Health / Public health: a matter of private profit

The proposed junior doctors’ contracts and cuts to student nurse bursaries are part of the drive to turn our hospitals into profit-taking enterprises.

Social wage / New bill could pave the way for the final destruction of social housing

Is this the end of social housing in Britain or the start of a fight-back?

Climate change / Floods in Britain: capitalism creating and exacerbating ‘natural’ disasters

As cuts, privatisation and climate change collide to create a perfect storm, it’s becoming clearer than ever that we’ve got to be red to be green!

Social wage / Disgraceful neglect of the disabled in Britain

Official government policy: nobody knows you when you’re down and out.

British politics / Health warning: capitalism kills

Latest assaults on society’s most helpless.

Disputes / Letter: Boycott the General Medical Council

The medical profession needs a new, independent governing body, capable of acting in the true interests of patients.

British politics / Health warning: Austerity kills

The truth is out, notwithstanding official attempts to cover it up.

Social wage / Benefit cuts: Who are the real parasites in our society?

Stealing from the poor for the benefit of the rich.

British politics / George Osborne’s vicious summer budget

Austerity is set to deepen yet again, and the rise in poverty we have seen so far is only the beginning of what’s in store for Britain’s workers as the crisis of capitalism demands ever-bigger lumps of our flesh.

Greece / Greece: Syriza caves in

Grexit is inevitable, despite the capitulation of Greece’s government to the austerity demands of the European bankers.

British politics / Election circus over, the class struggle continues

Workers don’t need Labour's ‘kinder’ cuts and ‘ethical’ wars; we need communist organisation to take on the ruling class and win.

Greece / Crunch time for Syriza?

The bloodsuckers are running out of ways to keep Greece paying out. The imminent explosion will rock the world’s financial systems.

Trade unions / Industry matters: Blacklisting rampant

There is increasing evidence that the practice of blacklisting has never gone away – and has been quietly condoned by governments of all parties.

Ireland / Sinn Féin stands alone against austerity

North and south of the border, Sinn Féin is proving to be the only large party that takes a sincere interest in the welfare of the masses.

Europe / Syriza victory in Greek elections

The Greek masses say No to austerity – but can Syriza save them?

Social wage / Wonga watch

Workers’ indignation needs to be justly roused against this humiliation of our class.

Divide and rule / Rage against capitalism: working-class youth fight back

The working class needs a general staff that can enable it to direct its anger in a constructive way.

Theatre / Play: The Power of Yes by David Hare

Explaining nothing, this play is aimed merely at letting off some steam without getting any nearer to a solution to society’s systemic problems.